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A Short History, and Facts on 

"The Park Commission Plans" 

(Issued by Authority of the fFashington, D. C, Chamber of Commerce.) 
Prepared by 

The Committee of 100 on the Future Development 
of Washington 



In 1896 The Public Art League was organized for the sole pur- 
pose of having the Government create a Fine Arts Commission for 
the future development of Washington along the original plans of 
L'Enfant, who was employed by George Washington and Thomas 
Jefferson in 1789 to plan the Nation's future Capital, the only city in 
the world ever planned before its construction and even today con- 
ceded by all Nations the best planned city. 

In 1899 the Washington Board of Trade offered suggestions to 
Congress concerning the future development of Washington (Park 
Improvement Papers of the District of Columbia, Public Document 
No. 1). The same year, through the Public Art League, the Ameri- 
can Institute of Architects organized a convention and were requested 
to present suggestions on the future development of Washington. 
(Senate No. 94, 56th Congress, 2d Session.) 

In 1900 the celebration of the National Capital Centennial went 
far to educate the people of the country as to the future of their 
Capital. As a permanent memorial a park development plan was de- 
sired. (Public Document No. 136, March 3d, 1901.) 

In 1901 the Senate authorized a Commission to study plans for 
the future development of Washington. (Senate report 160, 57th 
Congress, 1st session.) The result of this Commission was that in 
1902 The Park Commission Plans recommending a return to the 
original L'Enfant plans and advising that that part of the District 
not shown in the L'Enfant plans be developed in harmony with them, 
was presented to and accepted by the Senate. (The Improvements of 
the Park System of the D. C, 57th Congress, First session. Senate 
report 166.) 

Note is here made that upon research it will be found that The 
Park Commission Plans for the future development of Washington 
are the result of careful study and an epitome of the best of the many 






plans and able suggestions that have been offered from time to time 
to the Government and are considered by many to offer to the Nation's 
Capital a tangible, economical system for the location of its public 
buildings, bridges, statuary, highways, neighborhood parks, and a prac- 
tical solution of the connecting of Potomac Park, National Zoological 
Park, Rock Creek Park, Soldiers' Home Park, and what will soon 
be Eastern Branch Park, the Arsenal, the Mall and Arlington through 
a system of smaller parks, drives and bridges. 

The idea is not to accomplish all this in one decade, but if the 
Nation wishes its Capital ultimately to become the most beautiful city 
in the world, then a plan is as necessary for its accomplishment as a 
plan is to the man who would build a home, a machine, or lay out a 
garden. 

The Park Commission Plans were devised by mortals and it is 
not contended that they are infallible or that from time to time minor 
changes should not be made in them, but it is contended that future 
Washington depends materially on these plans and it is hoped that 
the House of Representatives will some day, in principle or in spirit, 
approve them as the Senate has done. It will then no longer be neces- 
sary for local and national organizations, societies, and public spirited 
individuals to join in a movement, as was done during the years 1903 
to 1907, to stop what they thought to be, though an honest, yet an 
unwise expenditure of public moneys by the location of parks, public 
buildings, and statuary not in harmony with The Park Commission 
Plans. 

In 1908 the President, recognizing this condition, appointed The 
Fine Arts Council (executive order 1010) and this council reported 
in favor of placing a projected Lincoln Memorial on the Mall, in keep- 
ing with the Park Commission Plans, and through the efforts of this 
Council the bill to place a projected Lincoln Memorial at the Union 
Station, a severe divergence from the Park Commission Plans was de- 
feated. 

In 1910 Congress considered it wise to create a Permanent Com- 
mission of Fine Arts and appropriated $10,000 a year for its use. 
Every decision rendered by this Commission has been in keeping with 
the Park Commission Plans. 

In 1911 Congress passed an act authorizing an appropriation of 
$2,000,000 for a Lincoln Memorial to be placed in the District of Co- 
lumbia and created the Lincoln Memorial Commission, which was to 
avail itself of the advice of the Permanent Fine Arts Commission. 
(Public 346, Senate 9449, February, 1911.) 

During the years 1910 and 1911 The Washington, D. C, Cham- 
ber of Commerce, The Washington Board of Trade, The Federation 
of Citizens' Associations and fourteen individual citizens' associations 
passed resolutions indorsing the Park Commission Plans, and the Lin- 
coln Memorial site on the Mall in keeping with the plans, and resolu- 
tions favoring the site as indicated by the Park Commission Plan were 
adopted by over two hundred local and national clubs, civic, municipal, 



JAN 13 1912 



patriotic, historical, architectural, fine arts, landscape, and engineer- 
ing organizations, and societies throughout the country, and the lead- 
ing commercial organizations of Rhode Island, Indiana, Massachu- 
setts, Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Ne- 
braska, South Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Mis- 
souri, and Pennsylvania. 

On December the fourth, 1912, after many meetings and examin- 
ing many plans, schemes and suggestions, such as roadways, etc., the 
Lincoln Memorial Commission, composed of President Taft, Speaker 
Clark, Representatives McCall and Cannon and Senators Cullom, 
Wetmore and Martin and Col. Cosby as executive officer, recom- 
mended to Congress that the Lincoln Memorial be placed in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia on the Mall, which is in keeping with the Park Com- 
mission Plans. 

On December the 13th, 1912, the Senate approved the findings 
of the Lincoln Memorial Commission. 

But in spite of all this and in spite of the fact that it has been 
proven again and again that with few exceptions commercial, 
civic, architectural and artistic America are a unit that the L'Enfant 
and, in principle, the Park Commission Plans are the best for the future 
of the Nation's Capital, there are constant and persistent efforts made 
to materially change these plans ; no more glaring example of this 
can be found than the attempt that was made to divert the $2,000,000 
appropriated by Congress for a Lincoln Memorial in the District of 
Columbia to a roadway. (Hearing Library Committee H. R. 13045, 
1912.) 

It was conditions of this nature that brought into life the Com- 
mittee of 100 on the Future Development of Washington, organized 
1910 with the sanction of the Washington, D. C, Chamber of Com- 
merce. A permanent committee, a national committee, and in its truest 
sense a vigilance committee, jealous for the future of Washington, 
positive as to the spirit of the Park Commission Plans. 

It is the desire of this committee that as far as possible the people 
of the country, who own and take such pride in their capital, and their 
representatives in Congress (who for a hundred years have been, and 
for the centuries to come will be considerate for it), to know what the 
Park Commission Plans mean to future Washington so they can think 
and vote understandingly. 

Information in detail on the Park Commission Plans, slides and 
suggestions for lectures, photographs and half tones showing present 
and future Washington, news for publications and resolutions to be 
adopted by organizations will be furnished upon request by addressing. 

The Committee of 100 
ON THE Future Development of Washington, 
Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C. 



The Committee of 100 
ON THE Future Development of Washington. 



Glenn Brown, Chairman, 

Wm. E. Shannon, Vice-Chairman 

Thos. Grant, Secretary, 

Milton E. Ailes 

Chas. J. Bell 

Ira E. Bennett 

Emil Berliner 

Miss Mabel Boardman 

Scott C. Bone 

Chapin Brown 

D. J. Callahan 

Dr. Mitchell Carroll 
Frank G. Carpenter 
Wm. McK. Clayton 
Fred G. Coldren 
C. I. Corby 

E. H. Daniel 
John Dolph 
E. H. Droop 

H. Rozier Dulaney 
John Joy Edson 
Dwight L. Elmendorf 
Fred A. Emery 
Wm. Phelps Eno 
Wm. John Eynon 
W. W. Finley 
W. T. Galliher 

E. C. Graham 
Julius Garfinkle 

Col. F. C. Goldsborough 
Wm. F. Gude 
Rev. Alfred Harding 
Frank W. Hackett 
Walter S. Harban 
Col. Robert N. Harper 
Chas. D. Hilles 
Rev. J. J. Himmel 
Wm. D. Hoover 
Chas. E. Howe 
Archibald Hopkins 

F. J. Haskin 
Hennen Jennings 
General John A. Johnston 
Col. W. V. Judson 
Louis Kann 

John B. Earner 

John C. Letts. 

A. Lisner 

Isaac F. Marcoson 

Hon. H. B. F. Macfarland 

James Rush Marshall 



Dr. James Dudley Morgan 
C. R. Miller 

A. C. Moses 

Miss Leila Mechlin 
Dr. E. P. Mertz 
Clarence Norment 
Theodore W. Noyes 
Chas. D. Norton 
Frank B. Noyes 
Robert Lee O'Brien 
J. C. O'Laughlin 
Captain James F. Oyster 
Thomas Nelson Page 
Arthur J. Parsons 
Hon. M. M. Parker 
Hon. Henry Kirke Porter 
Rev. Wallace Radclifife 
Dr. Chas. W. Richardson 
Mrs. Chas. W. Richardson 
Hon. Cuno H. Rudolph 
Rev. W. T. Russell 

B. F. Saul 

Montgomery Schuyler 
Albert Schulteis 

Rev. Thomas J. Shahan 
Mrs. W. Cummings Story 
Dr. J. B. Scott 
Dr. Frank Sewell 
James Sharp 
E. D. Shaw 
John Shughrue 
J. H. Small, Jr. 
Rabbi Abram Simon 

A. Leftwich Sinclair 
W. J. Starr 

Hon. Wendell Phillips Stafford 

E. J. Stellwagen 

Rear Admiral Charles H. Stockton 
George Stuart 
George Oakley Totten 
Mrs. Herbert Wads worth 

B. H. Warner 

Dr. Charles D. Walcott 

F. A. Walker 
Richard B. Watrous 
John L. Weaver 

Rev. W. R. Wedderspoon 
George W. White 
Mrs. S. A. Willis 
A. S. Worthington 



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